This is a blog about Army Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr. Mark Duber and his experiences during his Afghanistan deployment. Get ready for an intense ride.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Anticipation

Today began with Joe J (general surgeon) waking me up to go to the gym. The scorching heat has made it very hard to work up the motivation. Your body is drained and fatigued but your mind is clear and refreshed. Frustration ensues on leaving the comfort of my air conditioned tent for the sandy Hell outside. It truly is amazing that some people believe civilizations origin began in this area of the world. Maybe it was God using Darwinian logic to separate the weak from the strong. The strong prosper and the weak die.If I were bound to this sand blasting Hell for life, death could be the best option, but I’ll save that fate for the insurgent fuck’s since they are the reason I’m here.

The workout was a nice reminder of life before deployment. It is a great stress reliever and I plan on making it a part of my daily routine.It also gave me a chance to “Boot Camp” the other surgeons. Strong body equals strong mind.

Most of the day was wasting time waiting for a briefing about when we are leaving. I’m fully expecting to be delayed further. Other physicians have been here for 5 days, so if we make it out of Kuwait it will be nothing short of a miracle. The inefficiency of the army to facilitate us to our assignment, to do the job they tasked us to do is mind boggling.Imagine the wasted money spent for 3 general surgeons and 1 orthopaedic surgeon (also consider the 15 other physicians here) to sit on their asses and play par cease for a week.Too bad we didn’t invade the Bahamas. If we did this would be a paid vacation and I wouldn’t be bitching so much. Just another reason our country has a 13 plus trillion dollar deficit. God bless America.

The 8 P.M. briefing was better than expected. We are leaving for Bagram, Afghanistan tomorrow around 5:30P.M. I have been told don’t hold your breath until you’re on the plane, so cross your fingers. The flight is about 4 hours. Since we are now entering hostile territory we are required to wear our body armor. Yes, it will help save our lives if bullets rain down on us, but it will be hotter than shit considering the C-17 has no air conditioning and it’s 120+ degrees here.All I know is the temperature is slightly better in Bagram; leaving one Hell for a slightly better one. This slightly better Hell comes with common insurgent missile attacks, so I need to ready myself. Most miss their target; I hope that is the case when i’m there.